Comedy as rock 'n' roll?

Sunday 2 July 2006 23:00 BST

Robert Newman has come a long way since embodying the comedy-as-rock-and-roll ethos by filling out Wembley Arena with David Baddiel in the early Nineties.

While Baddiel still awkwardly straddles the wobbly fence between lad and intellectual, Newman has made a bold grab for the cerebral high ground with a series of complex novels. His live shows have been equally challenging, exploring everything from the real causes of the Iraq War to political dissent in Britain two hundred years ago.

His new piece, No Planet B, is his most ambitious project yet. Subtitled The History Of The World Backwards, Newman describes this as "part-play, part-musical, part-stand-up". It probably won't transfer to Wembley, but it probably will be provocative, well-researched and very funny and is definitely highly commended. (020 7328 1000).